Mumbai's first encounter specialist ACP Isaque Bagwan, who retires today, recalls the day 26 years ago when he fired his gun in a courtroom
Mumbai's first encounter specialist ACP Isaque Bagwan, who retires today, recalls the day 26 years ago when he fired his gun in a courtroom
Mumbai's first encounter specialist ACP Isaque Bagwan retires today after 35 years of service, but he clearly remembers the day when he fired his gun in the courtroom.
It was 11.30 am on September 6, 1983. Bagwan, then a police sub-inspector attached to the Crime Branch, had just escorted gangster Amirzada Nawab Khan to the sessions court in connection with the murder of Shabir, the elder brother of Amirzada's arch rival Dawood Ibrahim.
Burly Amirzada, wearing a white T-shirt and blue trousers, strode into the prisoner's enclosure inside the busy court.
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Jaffar Jamal Siddique, a close associate, accompanied him. The lawyers were waiting for Sessions Judge S V Joshi to begin court proceedings on the case.
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The crowd was beginning to settle down when a 20-year-old virtually unknown youth managed to slip past the police cordon and enter the court.
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He walked about 15 steps forward before he saw his target from the corner of his left eye. Bagwan was positioned about 12 feet away from the stranger, listening to the judge.
Quick draw
Suddenly, the youth swivelled 180 degrees and strode towards the prisoner's enclosure.
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The sudden swift movement surprised Amirzada, who was still talking to Siddique. When the youth was less than five feet from Amirzada, he pulled a .
38 caliber revolver from under his shirt and opened fire. Amirzada took three bullets in the chest, stomach and upper neck. A terrified Siddique simply buried his face in his hands while the crowd ran helter-skelter for cover.
"Stop! Don't run. Stop," yelled sub-inspector Bagwan. But the assassin simply pushed past the crowd and swiftly headed towards the window.
His plan was apparently to escape the scene by jumping from the first floor. In a scene evocative of a Bollywood potboiler, Bagwan took position and fired his .38 caliber Titan Tiger service revolver.
He managed to hit the assassin's right thighs, as he straddled the window. The assassin was easily overpowered after that and disarmed.
First encounter
Just a year earlier, Bagwan had shot dead Manya Surve in what came to be known as Bombay's first police encoun-ter.
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The officer had fired five rounds at the urban dacoit, who had unleashed a reign of terror in the metropolis.
On Dawood
Bagwan recalls how, in 1982, he had struggled to separate burly Amirzada Khan from strangling Dawood in the corridors of Esplanade Court.
"The burly Pathan was too strong for puny Dawood. He would have killed him if I had not separated the two.
In those days, dons had to fight their own wars and had to be on the streets unlike today when they use phones instead," Bagwan told MiD DAY.
According to Bagwan, Dawood's downfall started after his involvement in the 1993 blasts. His smuggling network was crippled and most of his sympathisers distanced themselves from him.
Bagwan, who joined the police in 1974, said that even after his retirement, he would like to continue living in Mumbai, the city where he saw the rise and fall of underworld gangs.
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